"Undertone" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... my favorite, but the off one is the best goer, though she's dreadfully hard bitted," answered Ben the younger, with such a comical assumption of a jockey's important air that his father laughed as he said in an undertone: ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12 • Various
... fifteen; working people, evidently, but marked by that air of cleanly poverty which in some seems but a touch of ascetic refinement. The young woman at once mentioned The Bull, and thereupon a little embarrassed consultation in undertone seemed to pass between her and the old man, resulting in a timid question as to whether Narcissus would mind putting up with them, as they were poor folk, and could well do with any little he cared to offer for his accommodation. There was ...
— The Book-Bills of Narcissus - An Account Rendered by Richard Le Gallienne • Le Gallienne, Richard
... to recover his equanimity by devoting himself to the cult of Eve, he heard the colonel whisper in a confidential undertone ...
— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore
... that, too, was mysterious. Whence came that undertone like the moan of a weary wastrel tortured with dreams of idyllic innocence long lost? Why did her utterance, like her glorious face, always suggest some inner, darker meaning? There were times when she seemed old—old as vice and cruelty, hoarse ...
— The Light of the Star - A Novel • Hamlin Garland
... from the bridge across the road over which the lumbering carts went sometimes, and the heavy carriages still more seldom. On the other hand, looking up the stream, were the hills from among which this little river slipped out rippling along with its musical undertone, as if they had sent it as a messenger to express their delight in summer. In the distance the Piscataqua broadened out to the sea, and beyond the river the city was outlined against the sky. To the left of this, and in great sweeps along ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1 • Various
... inches was the Territory record for one night). Also the fringe of birds was back at the billabong, having returned with as little warning as it had left, and once more its ceaseless chatter became the undertone of ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn
... excessively amusing,' said the Prince, in a soft, confidential undertone to his neighbour, Mrs. Montfort, who was as dignified as she was beautiful, and who, admiring his silence, which she took for state, smiled and bowed with ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli
... brief halt, the retinue of the heir to the throne moved on its farther journey, Herhor mounted his horse and riding at the side of Nitager, spoke in an undertone about Asiatic nations and, above all, about the ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus
... an undertone, as if to recall that name, 'who is Emmeline?' Then looking in my face with fearful shining eyes that made me shudder, she said in a strange, unnatural voice: 'Who are you?' and turned away from me. Her mind was unhinged; this last shock had been too much ...
— Acadian Reminiscences - The True Story of Evangeline • Felix Voorhies
... uttered by every one in a low undertone that sounded like a groan, as the old boatswain stopped short, raised the ring of rope, holding one end tightly ...
— Syd Belton - The Boy who would not go to Sea • George Manville Fenn
... VASILI, in a serious undertone]. Monseigneur graciously consents that I reveal his ...
— The Man from Home • Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson
... I have proposed in any way attractive to you?" Herr Freudenberg asked, still speaking in an undertone. ...
— The Mischief Maker • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... man," he said in an undertone. "Is there any objection to my dictating a letter to ...
— The Wall Street Girl • Frederick Orin Bartlett
... ship. He went over her conscientiously, praised her heartily, congratulated me on my command with absolute sincerity. At dinner, as I offered him wine and beer he shook his head, and as I sat looking at him interrogatively, muttered in an undertone: ...
— The Mirror of the Sea • Joseph Conrad
... mother is asking for you," he said, rather abruptly; but Dick growled something in an undertone, and did ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey
... it means?" puzzled the Vicar-General, in an undertone, as the vote-taker disappeared; and the crowd fell back a little on Father Kelly's bland announcement that Mr. Duffy had been called off for a few minutes, and there would be a recess ...
— Life at High Tide - Harper's Novelettes • Various
... contents, read it carefully. All this time, seeing resistance was quite useless, I did not move. I felt too sick and giddy for anything. When he had finished his correspondence Nikola said something in an undertone to Draper, who immediately left the room. During the time he was absent none of us spoke. Presently he returned, bringing with him a wine glass filled with water, which he ...
— A Bid for Fortune - or Dr. Nikola's Vendetta • Guy Boothby
... but it was not taken. Manuel had left his seat and now stood before her, awed by the undertone of strong emotion in her calmly spoken words, bewildered by the proposal so abruptly made, longing to ask the natural question hovering on his lips, yet too generous to utter it. Pauline read his thought, and answered it with no touch of pain or pride in the magical ...
— Pauline's Passion and Punishment • Louisa May Alcott
... me that her father is in a virtual state of siege, as it were, up there in his own house," explained Kennedy in an undertone, "so much so that, apparently, she is the only person he felt he dared trust with a message to summon me. Practically everything he says or does is spied on; he can't even telephone without ...
— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve
... at your blindness and obstinacy. It is now from three to five years since I began to speak—though in a kind of indistinct undertone at first—against this bloody traffic. I have reasoned, I have remonstrated, and latterly I have threatened and implored with increasing earnestness. At times you have listened, and been convinced that ...
— Select Temperance Tracts • American Tract Society
... to Lushington in an undertone during the interval before the last act, and as he listened to what she said his face became very grave, and his lips set themselves together in a look which ...
— Fair Margaret - A Portrait • Francis Marion Crawford
... could reply my husband came in, followed shortly by Alma, who was presented as before, as "Mary's old school-fellow"; and then, while Betsy talked to Alma and my husband to his kinswoman, Aunt Bridget, in an undertone, addressed herself to me. ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine
... song, the stricken strings In undertone that half-unconscious clings, More clearly sounding when the passions rise, But ever sweeter as the music dies. Words that strong passion fain would say again, Yet checks their second utterance—in vain; For music sweet ...
— The Little Clay Cart - Mrcchakatika • (Attributed To) King Shudraka
... with lingering pace, He walked all night the alleys of his park, With one unseen companion in the dark, The Demon who within him lay in wait, And by his presence turned his love to hate, Forever muttering in an undertone, "Kill! kill! and let the Lord find ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... looked round expectantly. Two of the boys, "Gimpy" and Lem, were conferring aside in an undertone. Presently Gimpy, who limped, as his ...
— Children of the Tenements • Jacob A. Riis
... replied cheerfully. Then in an undertone as Seymour and Mabel walked on, "you understand, ...
— Hollowmell - or, A Schoolgirl's Mission • E.R. Burden
... to be serious in real earnest, taking my imperturbable gravity for their example. De la Tour d'Auvergne was the first to regain a serious face, and he then offered Camille his thigh, and she, fancying herself on the boards, began to rub the sick man, whilst I mumbled in an undertone words which they would not have understood however clearly I had spoken, seeing that I did ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... the two everlastings, is a little plain-looking agriculturist, who appears to be watching them. He is in the careless and ever-admitted picturesque position of leaning over a garden fence; but whether the invariables are aware of the little gentleman, and are consequently conversing in an undertone, we leave every beholder to speculate and settle for himself. Behind the worthy small farmer, and coming from the door of his residence, most cleverly introduced, is his wife (we know it to represent the wife, from the clear fact of the lady's appearance being typical of the gentleman's), ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... greeting. Towering majestically among his fellows stood Mung Baw, who, throwing them a hasty explanation, advanced to welcome Shafto with a soldierly tread and a jaunty swing of his yellow robe. Then taking him aside he began to talk to him in a cautious undertone: ...
— The Road to Mandalay - A Tale of Burma • B. M. Croker
... Merrihew in an undertone, as the man strolled leisurely past them. "Eight thousand, ...
— The Lure of the Mask • Harold MacGrath
... the time that my thinking was foolish, and was even aware of a certain undertone of contemptuous humour in it; but suddenly it was checked, and I seemed again to hear the croak of ...
— Lilith • George MacDonald
... next floated upon some dark green trees, that sent out a spicy odor as I touched their boughs, and when I moved they sang a low, tuneful melody; their song was of the snowy mountain peak, the clouds, the bubbling spring, the sunshine and the green grass; yes, and there was something else, a deep undertone that I did not then understand, and the melody was a loom that wove them all into a living harmony; some of my breezes are there still, listening to the Pine Trees' song; but I hurried on, the grass grew green and luscious ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various
... godmother in an undertone, "is the child." Then she said in her naturally stern way of ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens
... does she mean?" she demanded swiftly, in a breathless undertone, instinctively drawing aside from the rest of ...
— The Hermit of Far End • Margaret Pedler
... impartial—the best one to ask," mumbled Vittum, stepping close to her. "He ain't hired by either side, as I understand it!" He was ironic, but there was a suggestion which she grasped desperately. She went to Latisan. Their conversation was in an undertone and the bystanders did ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day
... big room?" she said in an undertone to Elinor, who nodded appreciatively as she led the way into the nearest corner where a comfortable divan and a couple of ...
— Miss Pat at Artemis Lodge • Pemberton Ginther
... this was only an accentuation or a slight increase in volume of a note of apprehension which in better times still runs less audibly as a kind of undertone to the people's thought. I had stopped one day to say good-morning to an old widow-woman outside her cottage. She was the mother of that young man whose funeral was mentioned two chapters back; but this ...
— Change in the Village • (AKA George Bourne) George Sturt
... however, her thoughts were a little diverted from her father. For the first time for many months she had a letter from Rose. It was to announce her engagement to Captain Golightly. Rose seemed very happy, but there was an undertone of regret about the letter which was uncomfortably suggestive of her flirtation with Tom. Also there were sentences which, to Erica, were enigmatical, about "having been so foolish last summer," and wishing that she "could live that Brighton time over again." All she could do ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall
... saw two great tears trace a channel down the stranger's manly checks and fall to the floor. Then the office for the dead was recited; the Domine salvum fac regem chanted in an undertone that went to the hearts of the faithful Royalists, for they thought how the child-King for whom they were praying was even then a captive in the hands of his enemies; and a shudder ran through the stranger, as he thought that ...
— An Episode Under the Terror • Honore de Balzac
... thus excluded from confidence, but obedient as ever, Pennyloaf speedily prepared herself and the children, the younger of whom she still had to carry. When she was gone Mr. Bartley assumed a peculiar attitude and began to speak in an undertone. ...
— The Nether World • George Gissing
... 'em's coming!—shove your hand back, and pertend like you're fast, till he goes away agin!" said Sneak, in a hurried undertone. ...
— Wild Western Scenes • John Beauchamp Jones
... you suppose I went night before last with Aunt Lydia?" Bertie resumed, as she fingered the remaining two or three of a row of shining teaspoons. "To the opera"—in an awe-struck undertone; "to Rig-o-letto. Aunt Lydia couldn't get a box—she said they were all taken for the season; but we had seats close to one side, just below the boxes. Such a grand place! Ever since the Auditorium was opened I've been hoping to see it, ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller
... knew that once imprisoned within the baron's five fingers, no hand ever left it without being half-crushed. He therefore held out, not his hand, but his fist, and Porthos did not even perceive the difference. The servants talked a little with each other in an undertone, and whispered a few words, which D'Artagnan understood, but which he took very good care not to let Porthos understand. "Our friend," said he to himself, "was really and truly Aramis' prisoner. Let us now see what the result will be of the liberation ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas
... Thomas," replied Manuello with a sweeping bow, "the coffee I make is very soothing. It will give you a long, soft sleep." There was an undertone of subtle irony that was entirely lost upon ...
— Frontier Boys on the Coast - or in the Pirate's Power • Capt. Wyn Roosevelt
... undertone of angry contempt in the exclamation which made Horace start. "What is the matter?" ...
— The New Magdalen • Wilkie Collins
... from that day that the storm broke at the Yellow Jacket Mine. A deep undertone of discontent and rebellion had filled the air during that time. Job had felt it more plainly than he had heard it. The superintendent had kept a calm, firm face, though Job knew he was anything ...
— The Transformation of Job - A Tale of the High Sierras • Frederick Vining Fisher
... better go to some other car," said her husband, in an undertone. "He wishes to see the country, probably, himself, and has come early, perhaps, so as to ...
— Rollo in Paris • Jacob Abbott
... N. faintness &c adj.; faint sound, whisper, breath; undertone, underbreath^; murmur, hum, susurration; tinkle; still small voice. hoarseness &c adj.; raucity^. V. whisper, breathe, murmur, purl, hum, gurgle, ripple, babble, flow; tinkle; mutter &c (speak imperfectly) 583; susurrate^. steal on the ear; melt in the air, float on the air. Adj. inaudible; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... Fineberg on the important matter of a rise in salary. Mr. Coppin removed his saucer of tea from his lips. Frank brushed the tail of a sardine from the corner of his mouth. Percy ate his haddock in an undertone. Albert Potter, who was present, ...
— A Man of Means • P. G. Wodehouse and C. H. Bovill
... auld eneuch to min' upo' that, mem,' returned Betty revengefully, but in an undertone, as if she did not intend her mistress to hear, And although she heard well enough, her mistress adopted the subterfuge. 'But I'll sweir the crater I saw was in ...
— Robert Falconer • George MacDonald
... Saviour was not quite quenched. Under the hellish outcries which had broken loose around the cross of Jesus there had lain a deep misgiving. Half of them seem to have been instigated by doubt and fear. Even in the self-congratulations of the priests we catch an undertone of dread. Suppose that even now some imposing miracle should be wrought! Suppose that even now that martyr-form should burst indeed into messianic splendor, and the King, who seemed to be in the slow misery of death, should suddenly with a great voice summon his legions ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03 • Various
... his hand on the straight, jet-black hair. "Bless you, my boy!" he said comically, but his undertone held intense relief, which did ...
— The Shagganappi • E. Pauline Johnson
... Mrs. Wintermill before the servant had time to close the door behind the departing ones. She did not go to the trouble of speaking in an undertone. ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon
... softer expression than they often condescended to admit into their cold and penetrating lustre. At that moment, however, her attention was drawn from me to a servant, who entered with a note, and I heard him say, though in an undertone, "From Mrs. Ashleigh." ...
— A Strange Story, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... great ills which crowded so thickly around Beethoven, Schubert, or Schumann. Who can wish that he had been? that that bright, pure, aspiring spirit should have been dulled by distress or torn with agony? It might have lent a deeper undertone to his songs or have enabled his Adagios to draw tears where now they only give a saddened pleasure. But let us take the man as we have him. Surely there is enough of conflict and violence in life and in art. When we want to be ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1 • Rupert Hughes
... love you, Jacqueline," he cried, and now I heard an undertone of passion which I had not suspected in the man. "I am not a scoundrel, Jacqueline. Life is a hard game, and I have played it hard. And I have loved you for a long time, but I would not tell you until I had the right ...
— Jacqueline of Golden River • H. M. Egbert
... Captin'", said Micah, speaking in a cautious undertone, "neow's the time, ef we do it at all, to nab them deer. While your gittin' rigged and takin' a cold bite, I'll tell ye the lay o' things. Ye see, don't ye, that pint o' land ahead on us, a juttin' out into the stream? Well, we've got to put the canoe on the water right ...
— Adele Dubois - A Story of the Lovely Miramichi Valley in New Brunswick • Mrs. William T. Savage
... peculiar was, that the presence of other persons in the room, though at a considerable distance, compelled both brother and sister, though anything but calm, to speak sotto voce. But in the history of mankind more strange and incongruous matter has been dealt with in an undertone, and with artificial ...
— Love Me Little, Love Me Long • Charles Reade
... strange nature are on the air. The murmur always present where multitudes are assembled runs as an undertone; the sharp notes of frightened women and terrified children rise as the tones of an oratorio; steady, full, vibrant are the ...
— The Transgressors - Story of a Great Sin • Francis A. Adams
... von Archenholtz, ensign or lieutenant in Regiment FORCADE: who testifies that it is one of the beautifulest nights, the lamps of Heaven shining down in an uncommonly tranquil manner; and that almost nobody slept. The soldier-ranks all lay horizontal, musket under arm; chatting pleasantly in an undertone, or each in silence revolving such thoughts as he had. The Generals amble like observant spirits, hoarsely imperative. [Archenholtz, ii. 100-111.] Friedrich's line, we observed, is in the horse-shoe shape (or PARABOLIC, ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XX. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle
... signs, in a gentle, soft, and private way. Two and two were in general to live together, so that one might watch the other. After departing from the supper hall to bed it was not permitted them to speak again in public, except upon urgent necessity, and then only in an undertone. All scurrility, jests, and idle words were to be avoided; and after any foolish saying, the repetition of the Lord's Prayer was enjoined. All professed knights were to wear white garments, both in summer and ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... is a pretty place, Lacville, and cheaper than one would think." She leant across the table, and continued in a confidential undertone: "As for us—my husband and I—we have taken a small villa; he has grown so tired ...
— The Chink in the Armour • Marie Belloc Lowndes
... make when he suspected that some one else was trying to obtain a closer scrutiny than was agreeable. Ned was not a little puzzled by what he witnessed. He looked down to his friends, and spoke in a careful undertone: ...
— The Wilderness Fugitives • Edward S. Ellis
... my stomach. "But you are better," he murmurs; "the stomach is not so hard." I protest—he seems astonished, the interne then says to him in an undertone: ...
— Sac-Au-Dos - 1907 • Joris Karl Huysmans
... in a quiet undertone, "does it occur to you that you are making no preparations to defend the camp! That, in fact, you seem wholly indolent ...
— The Young Engineers in Colorado • H. Irving Hancock
... with tentative sympathy, running his pencil through his upright hair, and tapping his forefinger with it nervously. "I believe that's one of Bartlett's personal matters," he said in an undertone. ...
— The Wizard's Daughter and Other Stories • Margaret Collier Graham
... Ilinka remained sitting silently by the window, apparently absorbed in contemplation of my three-cornered cap, and every now and then angrily muttering something in an undertone. ...
— Youth • Leo Tolstoy
... magic which took place at Ephesus, to which St. Luke has called attention in his Acts of the Apostles. Mr. Blades describes this holocaust as righteous, and only permits himself to say in a kind of undertone that he feels a certain mental disquietude and uneasiness at the thought of the loss of more than L18,000 worth of books, which could not but have thrown much light (had they been preserved) on many ...
— In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays • Augustine Birrell
... the indescribably sweet smell of ripening grain, clover-blooms, and new hay; for the high stands of wild hay around the ponds and lakes are all being cut this year, and even the timothy along the roads, and there was a mellow undertone of mowing machines everywhere, like the distant hum of a city. Fat cattle stood knee-deep in a stream as we passed, and others lay contentedly on the clover-covered banks. One restless spirit, with a poke on her neck, sniffed at us as we went by, and tossed her head in grim ...
— The Next of Kin - Those who Wait and Wonder • Nellie L. McClung
... so loud," said Hugh in an undertone. "There are some of those Puritans, the cursed Roundheads, near, and it would mean death to Sir William if it were known that ...
— The Real America in Romance, Volume 6; A Century Too Soon (A Story - of Bacon's Rebellion) • John R. Musick
... get out some back way," she declared to Dunham in a nervous undertone. She had outraged the proprieties by coming, as she read in the disapproving puckers around the old housekeeper's mouth. She was not going now to have ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham
... Caffe?" he called, and then in an undertone, "Don't you know me, old fellow? Caffe, sir? ...
— The Eternal City • Hall Caine
... C. B. I thought the punishment rather stiff, but the old Major had it in for me. A few days before, when we were on parade, the old Major kept our platoon drilling after the others had gone in, and all the boys were sore. He gave us an order, and one of the boys near me said in a loud undertone, "Go to hell, you spindle-legged old crow." The Major heard it; he turned quickly and looked in our direction and caught me laughing, so he felt pretty sure that it was I who had made the remark; so when he got a chance to get even, he soaked it ...
— Into the Jaws of Death • Jack O'Brien
... woman-fashion, over her arm. Then, with a low word to the pin-headed young man, followed by a downward wave of his palm to denote the time, and the child's fingers firm in his own, Felix led her through an old-fashioned, stately minuet, telling her in an undertone ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith
... ludicrous in everything, and, with all his practicality, there was a strain of romance so fresh and young mingled with it, that it made a boy of him whenever he was dominated by it. He was the boy to-night, and as he leaned towards Joyce, talking in an undertone, his eye bright, his laughter frequent, his manner full of respectful friendliness, she forgot that he had ever seemed hard, cold, and given over ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... walked a few yards and Mildred knocked three times, sharply, at a door. Philip noticed in the fanlight a cardboard on which was an announcement that apartments were to let. The door was opened quietly, and an elderly, tall woman let them in. She gave Philip a stare and then spoke to Mildred in an undertone. Mildred led Philip along a passage to a room at the back. It was quite dark; she asked him for a match, and lit the gas; there was no globe, and the gas flared shrilly. Philip saw that he was in a dingy little bed-room with a suite of furniture, painted to look like pine much too large ...
— Of Human Bondage • W. Somerset Maugham
... health and superfluous heat that I like to be cool; and then I have the—" he stopped short here, for he could not quite deviate from the truth so far as to say he actually had the asthma, so he added, in an undertone, "If I had the asthma I could not breathe, you know, in this small room, pretty as it is, and upon my word it is lovely. Have you no larger ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes
... edged up to his daughter, and was intimidating her in what he imagined to be an undertone. "Hold your tongue, Maggie," he said in a thunderous whisper. "Why should you shield the fellow? Where's his sword? ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton
... says," put in Bobby, in an undertone. "She says your feet, Lil, have been bound like a Chinese ...
— The Girls of Central High Aiding the Red Cross - Or Amateur Theatricals for a Worthy Cause • Gertrude W. Morrison
... one of the most important members of the family. Doctor, I hope you will be very friendly to these young ladies, and not take one of your absurd dislikes to either of them. All depends upon the first impression, my dears!" she added, in an undertone, to the girls. "He is forming his opinion now, and nothing will ...
— Hildegarde's Holiday - a story for girls • Laura E. Richards
... view, and, lifting her feet from her slippers, Miriam went silently towards the door. She had thrown in the letter and was turning back, when she heard nailed boots on the stones, a voice singing, a little thickly, in an undertone. She caught her breath and ran, but as she fumbled for her slippers in the dark, she knew she was discovered. He had uttered a loud, "Ha!" of triumph, his feet were after her, and she squealed like a hunted rabbit when he ...
— Moor Fires • E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young
... would have a complete picture of a tribe of Bedouins preparing to pass the Great Desert. Arrived in the forest about nightfall, and well and duly shut up in their Gibraltar of wood, the sportsmen may eat, drink, and smoke, and converse in an undertone; but a heavy fine is invariably inflicted on those who make the least noise. No one is permitted to sneeze, talk loud, or laugh; as to blowing one's nasal organ vigorously, the thing is absolutely forbidden; no one is allowed to have ...
— Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches • Henri de Crignelle
... have seemed very wonderful. Many of the soldiers were still munching the hard bread and raw pork of their meagre breakfasts, or drinking the cold coffee with which they had filled their canteens the day previous. Many more were chatting in an undertone, grumbling over their sore feet and other discomfits, chaffing each other, and laughing. The general bearing, however, was grave, patient, quietly enduring, and one might almost say stolid. You would have said, to judge by their expressions, that these sunburned ...
— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various
... no place for women," Muffles remarked in an undertone when his wife had disappeared. "Dat's why de Missus ain't never 'round. And when de kids grow up we're goin' to quit, see? Dat's what de Missus says, and ...
— The Underdog • F. Hopkinson Smith
... the auto, who seemed to be a kindly man, put an end to this unequal and hopeless struggle of the scout by ordering a round of lemonade and purchasing fifty cents' worth of doughnuts. "When you have a few minutes to spare," he said in a companionable undertone, "stroll up the road and look ...
— Pee-wee Harris • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... without its undertone of disquiet. Foresighted men were apprehensive lest the one-crop system bring distress to the cotton belt as it had to Virginia. As early as 1818 a few newspaper editors[10] began to decry the regime; and one of them in 1821 ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
... everything, and by the timely announcement that Smallweed's deficiency consists of two overcoat straps, which are no longer used in the service, restores comparative quiet. Smallweed, however, retires up and shakes his head dubiously, remarking in an undertone, to a weak-eyed young man, who stands in mortal awe of him, that it may be all right, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... Coombe said and spoke in an undertone rapidly. "She thinks you mean to turn her out of the house as ...
— Robin • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... said Bertha; and then added, in an undertone, "you know what I promised to show you, Lizzie. Come with me; let them make up the ...
— Leah Mordecai • Mrs. Belle Kendrick Abbott
... telling in an undertone of the meeting between Mr. Bradshaw and Miss Badlam, and of the arrangements she made for herself as the reporter of the occasion. She then repeated to him, in her own way, that part of the conversation which has been already laid ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... of her millions that she was placed before me," she said in an undertone to her husband, as soon as the guests had returned to the drawing-room. And, giving orders that her carriage should be summoned immediately, she left the house without speaking to any one, and with the air of a peeress of England outraged ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet
... his words slightly, and whose glasses kept on tumbling off his nose, waded through the several duties of husbands towards their wives, and of wives towards their husbands, as expounded by Scripture, in a monotonous undertone, until, to the great relief of the weary guests, the ceremony at last ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... be strung up," growled a grizzled old trooper in an undertone. "The gang that murdered Pat Donovan will find scant ...
— Foes in Ambush • Charles King
... said the Doctor; "the 'something alike, that even a boy can see,' is one of the things that shows these birds to be cousins, as I told you. Every one of the Silver-tongued Family is spotted when it gets its first feathers. It is strange," he added in an undertone, as if talking to himself, "how long it took some of us to find out what ...
— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues
... noticed one singular occurrence. Not a monk had moved to seize the young man, except one, who rushed forward, and was stopped, as though struck to stone, by Father Anselm's saying to him in a terrible undertone, "Hubert!" ...
— The Dragon of Wantley - His Tale • Owen Wister
... bays and inlets of the continent of silent beauty, and above all the mysterious sense of a great history still to come for this new land itself—a sense of the murmuring of many voices caught as the undertone of the rustling of the forest leaves, but rising at last to the mighty sound of the vast civilization that in the centuries to come should pour into the silent ...
— The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada • Stephen Leacock
... wonder at if he could have looked into Josey Letterbarrow's cottage that evening and seen Maryllia there, sitting on a low stool at the old man's knee and patting his wrinkled hand tenderly, while she talked to him in a soft undertone and he listened with grave intentness and sagacity, though, also with ...
— God's Good Man • Marie Corelli
... stopped. She walked back a few paces, stopped again; then returned and sat upon a wooden bench. The moon was in the trees; a few clouds floated among the pale stars; the sea murmured to the shadows in an undertone. ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume V. • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... sat somewhat apart, talking in an animated undertone to each other. They did not even approach the fire to roast their food; and Mr. Hardy's attention being attracted by this circumstance, he asked what they were ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty
... Very soon one of the ladies returned—I could not tell which. A kind of pleasant stupor was stealing over me as I sat by the genial fire. In an undertone she gave some directions to Hannah. Ere long, with the servant's aid, I contrived to mount a staircase; my dripping clothes were removed; soon a warm, dry bed received me. I thanked God—experienced amidst unutterable exhaustion a glow ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte
... replied Nurse, "Miss Ruth's better; but she's not, so to say, as cheerful as I could wish. Still a few fancies, ma'am," she added in an undertone which ...
— The Kitchen Cat, and other Tales • Amy Walton
... practice which had ever been a weariness, stirred her to a passion of delight; it was the choral symphony of love's handmaidens. Did they see a change in her? Emily fancied that the elder girls looked at each other and smiled and exchanged words in an undertone—about her. ...
— A Life's Morning • George Gissing
... would need your chemiloons and high boots," said Mrs. Rightbody, in a regretful undertone, slightly increasing ...
— The Twins of Table Mountain and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... a short laugh with an undertone of seriousness, steps up to the table and opens one of the bottles ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume II • Gerhart Hauptmann
... desire she sang the ballads she so loved, and in her girlish voice there was an undertone of deeper melody than when I heard them first among her native hills; for the child's heart was ripening fast into ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... sharply, if in an undertone, "this will never do. You're as white as a sheet, trembling and staring as if I were a leper—or a relation by marriage ...
— Nobody • Louis Joseph Vance
... men met enthusiastically, some words were exchanged in an undertone, and both burst out laughing—a laugh of triumph. Was it at the expense of ...
— The Count's Chauffeur • William Le Queux
... careful," one of them remarked in a scarcely audible undertone. "Carton has detectives mingling with the talesmen in every court of importance ...
— The Ear in the Wall • Arthur B. Reeve
... purple stroked his little beard, hesitated, and answered in an undertone, "He is Howard, your chief guardian. You see, Sire,—it's a little difficult to explain. The Council appoints a guardian and assistants. This hall has under certain restrictions been public. In order that people might satisfy themselves. We have barred the doorways for the first time. ...
— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells
... meaning for her, entirely apart from its indistinguishable words. These, perhaps, if more distinctly heard, might have been only a grosser medium, and have clogged the spiritual sense. Now she caught the low undertone, as of the wind sinking down to repose itself; then ascended with it, as it rose through progressive gradations of sweetness and power, until its volume seemed to envelop her with an atmosphere of awe and solemn grandeur. And yet, majestic as the voice sometimes became, there ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... long wait, during which the conspirators conversed in an undertone, the door was opened and the Governor entered in company with Paulowitch. He appeared surprised to find himself in so large a company, when he had expected to meet but a few intimate friends, but he greeted all cordially and sat down in the ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith
... Mrs. Fosdick and I heard an anxious voice at the door speaking of a sick child, and Mrs. Todd's kind, motherly voice inviting the messenger in: then we waited in silence. There was a sound of heavy dropping of rain from the eaves, and the distant roar and undertone of the sea. My thoughts flew back to the lonely woman on her outer island; what separation from humankind she must have felt, what terror and sadness, even in a summer storm ...
— The Country of the Pointed Firs • Sarah Orne Jewett
... words Asher caught the undertone of courage, and he knew that a battle for supremacy was on, a struggle between physical outcry and ...
— Winning the Wilderness • Margaret Hill McCarter
... Scott, smiled as he followed Stanley out upon the platform and up the narrow stairway leading to the division offices. But Bob Scott was conservative. He never spoke above an undertone and naturally took the conservative side: "If he only doesn't make them go too fast, Colonel," ...
— The Mountain Divide • Frank H. Spearman
... min chaboro," said the black Callee to me, in an undertone; "sin un balicho de los chineles {4};" then looking up to the interrogator she said aloud, "he is one of our people from Portugal, come on the smuggling lay, and to see his ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow
... Philip Alston now!" he exclaimed in an undertone and with a frown. "The splendid audacity of the magnificent rascal! Think of his coming here—right under our noses—to-day, too, of all days! And he knows perfectly well that we know him to be the leader, the originator, the head and the brains ...
— Round Anvil Rock - A Romance • Nancy Huston Banks
... the true sense of the words, and he pointed to the prettiest flowers in the bouquet, and said: "these are the flowers of the pelargonium diadematum coccineum." I exclaimed at the dreadful name. M. de Villiers repeated: "Pelargonium diadematum coccineum!" in an undertone, with a most fascinating smile, and said: "Oh! I did not mean that!" ... I could not help looking at him and smiling in complicity; now why ...
— The Cross of Berny • Emile de Girardin
... surprise, recalling my features but not my identity. I leaned over my horse's neck, and spoke in an undertone: ...
— The Bright Face of Danger • Robert Neilson Stephens
... tells me that his soldiers will do all that pluck and muscle, endurance and dogged courage, dash and red-hot patriotism can accomplish. And yet his view is not sanguine. A sad undertone I caught in his voice. He says your war will be ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon
... the door into the kitchen. The two carriers were standing there, and Robert Elsmere also stood with his back to her, talking to them in an undertone. ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... sipped the sparkling beverage. He was cautioned in a whisper to drink but one glass, as it was necessary that he should keep a perfectly clear head. Weil remarked in an undertone that he had only ordered the wine as an excuse for remaining a ...
— A Black Adonis • Linn Boyd Porter
... knew I loved you?" she went on in the same bitter undertone. "What kind of woman did you take me for? I have accepted help from you to enable me to live in this flat—do you imagine I could have done such a thing without loving you? I should have thought it was obvious ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke
... of sullen dissatisfaction pervaded the manner of the hunter during the whole of his speech; yet he thought it prudent to utter the close of the sentence in such an undertone as to leave nothing audible but the ...
— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper
... Often I would spend hours in the wild solitudes hunting the vicuna and alpaca, or in some gloomy canyon communing with myself. Within my spirit I could hear an undertone, "Why cast thyself on waters wild, believing that God is gone, that love is dead and Nature spurns her child?" So, from my grief, I arose at length to feel new life returning. New hopes and ambitions sprang forth in my soul that had so keenly ...
— Where Strongest Tide Winds Blew • Robert McReynolds
... were a little undertone; the look that went with them the doctor never forgot as long as he lived. His questions about the festivities she had answered with a placid, pleased face; pleased that he should ask her; but a soft irradiation of joy had beamed upon the fact that the poor cripple was making a ...
— Melbourne House, Volume 2 • Susan Warner
... face and exquisitely thin lips, the delicate nostrils and beautifully moulded chin. Angel or devil? queries the beholder. Sometimes he is constrained to think that the possessor of such a face has the mingled souls of saint and siren. The light undertone of melancholy which pervades gypsy beauty, gypsy music, gypsy manners, has an extremely remarkable fascination for all who perceive it. Even when it is almost buried beneath ignorance and animal craft, it is still to be ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 • Various
... think you could exorcise the demon by a song, Miss Garston?' observed Mr. Hamilton, in an undertone. 'This is just the case where music may be a soothing influence; something must be ...
— Uncle Max • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... by and we'll call to Nell. I am afraid the case must have been desperate, for I am seldom the victim," I said in an undertone to our host, who acquiesced with a laugh. "Harriet Henderson must be dead, for Nell usually sends the worse one to her," I ...
— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess
... the cows nearby. They talked in a rumbling undertone, telling one another that Farmer Green's boy was going to learn to milk the Muley Cow and saying they were glad it was not themselves that Johnnie was going to try ...
— The Tale of the The Muley Cow - Slumber-Town Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey
... Lawford, in the same quiet, dispassionate undertone, 'I wouldn't mind if it was only myself. But there are so many of us, so many selves, I mean; and they all seem to have a voice in the matter. What is the ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare
... back to my coach; but as I got in I noticed a fair sized package which was not part of my despatches. I was about to call for my batman to get an explanation for this, when Colonel de L... stopped me, and told me, in an undertone, that the package contained some dresses in Berlin knitwear and other materials banned in France, and was destined for the Empress Josephine, who would be much obliged to me for bringing them to her! I recalled only too well the cruel anxieties I had suffered as a result of the false ...
— The Memoirs of General the Baron de Marbot, Translated by - Oliver C. Colt • Baron de Marbot
... was there." Tessa came close to him again, speaking in a tense undertone; her eyes gleamed almost black. "It was the Rajah that frightened her so—the Rajah—and my mother. I'm never going to ask God to bless her again. I—hate her! ...
— The Lamp in the Desert • Ethel M. Dell |
